Critics insist that government employment is inordinately large in the Buffalo area, that the public sector dominates the local economy to an unusual extent.

They’re wrong.

A new Business First study shows that 16.75 percent of the jobs in Erie and Niagara counties are government positions. That’s still above the national average, to be sure, but it puts Buffalo no higher than 36th place in a ranking of the nation’s 100 major metros. (Click here for a detailed story.)

Sacramento is more heavily dependent on government employment than any other market, with 28.82 percent of its jobs in the public sector. Eighteen other markets are above 20 percent, including Albany (seventh place) and Washington (10th).

What about the private sector? Where does it reign supreme? In the unlikely locale of Grand Rapids, Mich., where private employers account for 91.01 percent of all jobs, leaving only 8.99 percent for government.

Business First used August raw data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate each market’s share of public- and private-sector jobs. The database below has the breakdowns for all 100 markets. If you click View Details, you’ll find a similar split for the year 2000.